Store-within-a-store concept sells truck accessories

As consumer demands change, an effective redesign will address customers’ needs and emphasize particular merchandise retailer wants to heavily promote. One example is truck accessory centers, which are new to some stores.

Explosive growth in truck and sport-utility vehicle sales has retailers expanding their truck accessory offerings. Truck accessories five years ago required only 20 feet of display space, recalls John Petiford, store design and display coordinator for Springfield, Mo.-based O’Reilly Automotive, a 119-unit retail operation. “Today, that category requires twice the space,” he says. Strauss also consolidated its truck accessories, which had been spread throughout the store, into one area and added performance truck shocks and exterior accessories that it did not previously carry.

“We only increased our truck accessories inventory a fraction, but creating a special department focused customer attention and that helped sell,” says Catanzaro. Focusing customer attention on designated items is the objective of design. “If you wasn’t to be known as the truck accessory source in your market, you must design an authoritative in-store presentation of those items,” says Design Forum’s Chidley. “Customers won’t be able to walk into your stores without noticing.”

Big A Auto Parts has experienced a 30% increase in total volume since its redesign. The company plans to redesign 100 stores by year’s end. Big A’s information center (below), an interactive kiosk, provides information on a variety of repair topics.

To that end, Big A Auto Parts has created a Special Order Desk and signage to better service customers. According to Romeis, if a store doesn’t have a particular item, they will get it. Big A’s Truck Center is one of 12 departments to feature gondola signs that point the way to individual product categories.

The company plans to redesign 100 company stores and as many associate jobber stores as it can by year’s end.

PartsMart, formerly Wesco Auto Parts, has also redesigned its seven upstate New York stores to feature new truck accessories centers.

According to Stephen Alexander, president of Automotive In-Store Marketing, a Sanibel Island, Fla.-based consulting firm that supervised the PartsMart redesign, truck accessory stores draw customers from more than 25 miles away. “That is a 400% increase over the normal five mile market radius around an automotive products store,” Alexander points out.

In PartsMart stores, the Truck Accessories Center is accessible from four sides and boasts signage visible from any area in the store. The center’s carpeting is also different from the rest of the store to set it apart. “The Center demands the customer’s attention,” says Alexander, “which is the biggest part of the battle.” At 3,000-sq.-ft., the truck centers are the focal points of the 7,500-sq.-ft. stores.

“A truck accessories center can draw customers from as far as 25 miles away. The normal radius for an automotive retail store is five miles.’ - Stephen Alexander, president Automotive In-Store Marketing

Big A Auto Parts has gone a step further to make shopping even easier for customers by placing an interactive information kiosk, called an Information Center, in its new stores. The unit combines a computerized database, printer, VCR and TV monitor, providing complete coverage of a variety of repair topics.

“[The Center] provides repair and installation information and diagrams of the component section the customer is working on,” says Romeis. “They can print out a schematic with repair procedure instructions, or even watch one of a wattage metal halide lamps that focus more light on displays.

“We’ve seen a 30% increase in total volume¾wholesale volume up 15%, retail up close to 40%¾and a 2% increase in overall store profits.’ - Chris Romeis, vice president of marketing and advertising, Big A Auto Parts

Well-planned lighting conveys the perception of higher quality products. “Jewelry stores are expert at creating this quality expectation,” says Alstrup. “Their low light and dramatic spotlighting create an intimate space that makes a $300 piece of jewelry look as good as a nearby piece costing considerably more.”

NAPA has also changed the color of its walls from gray to white, brightening the stores, says Sierzputowski.

A truly effective design provides a comfortable shopping environment, which means customers are inclined to spend more. With a newly acquired taste for fine design, automotive aftermarket retailers have discovered that replacing out-modeled store layouts with new designs increases selling power.

Stephen J. Alexander, an automotive marketing consultant, says that too many retail chains have been slow to realize the sales potential in even the simplest in-store marketing.

Truck accessories are often stocked along with the car specific products or relegated to their own poorly designated department at the back of the store, Alexander says. There’s rarely anything to help or educate consumers about their purchase, nor even a sign to help tell them exactly what they’re buying, he says.

Serious in-store merchandising is something that’s still catching on, but as truck accessory consumers become more and more sophisticated, they’re going to expect retailers to help them along in their purchases, Alexander says. And in a competitive market, the retailers that recognize and meet those needs first will be the ones that enjoy the new business, he says.

Stephen J. Alexander is an aftermarket consultant, speaker and author for the Automotive Aftermarket. To learn more about other in-store merchandising and marketing issues, contact Stephen Alexander, Automotive In-Store Marketing at 239-395-9203 or e-mail him at salexander@autoinstore.com.